"A Thing of Beauty is a Thing of Joy",

It gave me great joy last week to plan and construct a beautiful project as a special gift for my lovely friend Wendy. Wendy started out as one of my customers but very quickly turned into one of my best stamping buddies and most loyal supporters! She has hosted so many Stampin' Up! Workshops I have lost count!

So when I was preparing for her last workshop, I wanted to create something really special for her as a little personal hostess gift from me to Wendy. Stampin' Up! does awesome hostess benefits, but I think it's the little gifts we make and share that make all the difference.

So what did Wendy receive?

A little gift tote, made by cutting a Fancy Favour Box from Basic Black 12x12 card, some flower pieces using the Fun Flowers Bigz L Die, and gorgeous side panels of flocked Mocha Morning Specialty Designer Series Paper cut using the largest Framelits Labels Collection Die.

Don't you just adore those flowers? After cutting them out, I scrunched them up tight then smoothed them out a little - I love how that almost gives them a faux leather look - you expect to feel gorgeous soft leather when you reach out to touch them!

See how the Fancy Favour box forms the gusset of the bag?  And this photo shows that I have also used an extra layer of backing card to reinforce the DSP.

Oh I am so happy with how this turned out - I want to make lots of them! If you're interested in seeing how this is made, you're welcome to ask me to show you this project at a free workshop.

Have a nice weekend!